Chris Norton was an everyday guy from Bondurant, Iowa playing football at Luther College. Then, something happened that changed his life forever in October 2010. He broke his C3 and C4 vertebrae on a kickoff play. This is the story of Chris’s recovery after he broke his neck. From being given a 3% chance to ever move again after his injury, to walking across the stage at his graduation with his girlfriend, Emily. Chris defied the 3% odds immediately after his surgery, a signal of the greatness to come. The story follows his recovery and every phase of it until his college graduation. Chris became a motivational speaker, and now he travels the country talking about his journey of family, friendship, and faith. Something interesting about this book was the change in the point of view every chapter. It changed between Terry and Chris every chapter. Terry is Chris’s dad, and also his role model. Chris always looked up to his dad as a kid, and it was interesting to see not only how everything affected Chris but also how it affected his family. I enjoyed reading Chris’s part way more though, because it was more personal and I connected to him more because he wrote in a way I could relate to more. The whole book though was very personal and didn’t leave out any details. That’s the reason it is so powerful. A theme I noticed throughout the whole book was staying positive and having great habits every day can bring great changes over time. Chris was an athlete, and he said that his work habits he learned from football and basketball were just preparing him for the hardest challenge he would ever face; learning to walk again. There were times when he got super sad or depressed about his situation, but he said overall he thought about how grateful he could be that he was still alive and he was blessed he could show his story to the world. Something that really just allowed me to connect with this book was my experience I had with my brother’s car accident. 2 years ago before Christmas, my brother was in a really bad car accident that killed 2 of his friends and almost killed him. All I could think about reading this book was how everything was so similar in some ways, but entirely different in others. I really felt empathy for Chris’s family because I’ve been in their shoes. It sucks. My brother was in the ICU for over a month, and Chris was in the hospital for a year. It makes me realize how lucky my family is. My brother can do almost everything he was able to do before the crash. Chris has to struggle to just walk. Not that my brother didn’t have his own problems. For the first week, we didn’t know if my brother was going to live, or have his memory, or be able to have any cognitive function. So in a way, it was even scarier for us because at least for Chris’s family they knew he was still the same person, even if he was in a wheelchair. All these feelings were the ones going through me as I was reading this book, it’s like my whole experience was similar to theirs, just in a faster way. Emmit is doing great now, but reading this book honestly made me feel kind of miserable because it was like I had to relive my experience again page by page, from the points where we wondered if anything would ever be “normal” again, the days when things just got worse, or when we could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. -Mitchell S.
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AuthorSTenth grade students at Decorah High School share how they're reading outside of their own experiences and how it has changed them. Categories
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November 2022
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